How Happy I Be…

This may sound terrible but I assure you it is not. I am merely echoing the joy a friend felt when her family was absent for the evening and she could enjoy cooking for herself. I know exactly where she is coming from.

You have the freedom to play your own music or screen your own television – but frequently it is just a case of having some relief from enduring THEIRS that makes the evening special. Silence can be far more than golden – it can be antibiotic, therapeutic, and blessed all at once.

Of course too much of it can tell on a nervous system that is attuned to ” MUM! HE’S HITTING ME! ” or ” MUM, THE WATER IS COMING THROUGH THE CEILING! “. The feeling that something ominous is happening can weigh on you – even if it is nothing more than the fact that the mortgage is growing. Some parents find it necessary to let off a smoke bomb every half hour or so to anchor themselves to reality.

Solitude once one has pupped is a rare thing. Children need something all the time – diapers, school costumes, bail money…the list is never ending. Even when they are not actively destroying the settee or the dog, they are there with the potential to do so – a wise parent never lets themselves lose consciousness of their surroundings. Foxholes and claymore mines only go so far in family affairs. You need to be actively alert…

I have welcomed the digital age and the X,Y, Z or whatever generation’s concentration on small computer screens – this has kept them within the range of observation for most of the time. Now they have Pokemon to pursue and it is even better – they go out looking for electronic signals and leave me alone in the house. Unfortunately the expeditions do not generally provide enough time for a locksmith to come and change the barrels in the doors, but one day this may be possible.